A huge part of our success over the past 25 years is due to the time and dedication our volunteers and partners put in. With their help, we transformed the Foundation from two classrooms with a handful of students to a two-building operation dedicated to empowering youth, to providing academic assistance and skill-building to over 200 children in grades K-12. Carol Hadley is a volunteer who has been with MWYF since the beginning. Learn about her experience watching MWYF’s growth and why she’s volunteered with us for the past 25 years:
Q: What was the Foundation like at the beginning and what did volunteering look like?
When I came initially, you were over at the Emmett Reed Center and you had two rooms probably 10x12 ft. for each room. About 18 students, if that many, split between kindergarten - 3rd [grades] in one room and 4th-6th in another. Rooms were somewhat crowded, the building itself needed to be improved. So our very first volunteer project was to get authorization from the City to come in on the weekend and paint the two classrooms and clean everything else up.
Q: What is your experience like as a mentor and what is the relationship like between you and your mentee?
Well, I first met Karina when she was five years old. It was the first time I had been convinced that maybe I should mentor, and at first, it was kind of hard because I didn’t know Karina and Karina didn’t know me. I’m not a talker, fortunately Karina is a talker, so once we got to talking I got to know more about her and our relationship has developed more and more each year.
Q: Why have you continued to volunteer with us for 25 years?
The reason I continue volunteering is I love the children, the staff and I also like to see the growth of the children. Because so many of them have come and gone through and now are in college and it’s just such an improvement in their lives and I can see the improvement in how they view life and what they can achieve.
Q: What would you say to those interested in volunteering with MWYF?
I encourage others to volunteer because it’s important to make a difference in a child’s life and a lot of the children here, I know don’t have the impact on their lives at home, and having someone come in and talk to them one-on-one and encourage them is very important.
